November 4, 2009

We watched the beginning last night. I accidentally clicked and paid $2.99 for this movie that I only meant to look at part of and only if it was free. So we watched about 15 minutes. Great opening. The song, the feet walking down the street, the can of paint, the great interest in shirts, the hair-brushing, the shots peering up from John Travolta's crotch to the awesome expanse of his hairy torso, the Farrah Fawcett poster on the wall, the father eyeing (poor, dead) Farrah's nipple, the pork chops, the entire family hitting each other around the dinner table.... Who can take much more than 15 minutes of such riches? $2.99 well spent!

I grew up in an Italian town (in upstate New York) I had not seen SNF for many years. Finally saw it maybe 15 years after it's release. I thought it caught some of the "Italian ethos" well (maybe a little over the top). The every other word the "F" word was IMHO right on. (sorry if I offend anyone)

That movie belongs in the same category as “Easy Rider,” “Looking for Mr. Goodbar” and “Boogie Nights.” A lot of movie goers expected a non-stop party hearty only to walk out of the cinema feeling cheated. “That movie sucked, man!”

The pop music equivalent would be buying Van Morrison’s “Blowin’ Your Mind” because you like the song “Brown Eyed Girl.”

A dead end job. A dead end life. Fucked up family. Fucked up friends. Wholesale misogyny. Rape. Gang violence. Unwanted pregnancy. Abortion. Racial bigotry. Hopelessness on tap. Nothing but limitations. No god from the machine flying in at the end to make everything all better.

IIRC, the only uplifting part of “Saturday Night Fever” was the brother who was losing his faith but who gets a good look at Tony Manero’s world and rededicates himself to the priesthood.

Saturday Night Fever has an end-of-an-era feeling about it. Not the decline of disco, but the way it depicts working-class white ethnic life in New York, a culture that was once dominant in the city's fabric but has now largely vanished.

I never saw the movie but vividly remember the SNL hommage to it, "Samurai Night Fever." Belushi's dancing and Akroyd's precis in perfect Italo-American delivery: "Dis is da life! To be young, stupid and have no future at all!"

Penny, I believe the movie left open-ended the question whether the brother had a true-calling to the priesthood or whether he was mostly desperate to escape the depressing bleakness of his only practical alternative.

$2.99 is better than the $12.99 or whatever I'd have to pay to download it off of iTunes. Youtube, unfortunately, disabled the audio on the intro you linked due to copyright infringement of whoever owns the BeeGees.

Thanks, Stephen Snell. Interesting is what we're shooting for around here.

On a side note, regarding the ending, my memory differs somewhat from the Wikipedia entry: "Recognizing Tony's honest wish to change, Stephanie takes his hand in hers, and then him into her arms in this final scene."

True, but that suggests some kind of deep affection that will be rekindled soon enough.

The way I remember it, she was being merely polite, almost pitying, giving him the brush-off because she was aiming to fit in with the Manhattan swells and Tony Monero would never make enough money to be good enough for her.

What made it tragic was the obvious fact that she, herself, had champagne taste and a beer pocketbook.

I must be way too young, as my recollection of the ending was that they agreed Tony could have a platonic, professional relationship with his counterpart and that in itself represented his "redemption".

And the conservatives here wonder why this child of the eighties constantly rails against sexual repression.

However, if the whole premise of the movie was to document the travails of how a working class 3rd generation American could pursue a dream, against the backdrop of his coming of age in the sexually-overcharged era of disco and feminism (hence, the intro), then I suppose that ending represents about as meaningful a resolution as you're going to get.

When I was very young, I envied the older teens who seemed to be having such fun with Disco. I couldn't wait to be a teen myself! Should I add I had no musical taste?

Maybe I still don't. As an adult, I still think some of the BeeGee's songs from the SNF track are awesome and have stood the test of time. And one of their follow-on #1 hits "Tragedy" - was so good and matched other SNF themes so well it was later added to new editions of the soundtrack.

I lost a bet on that one. No, "Tragedy!" was not in the original movie.